Saturday, September 9, 2000.

HEREFORD United recovered from conceding their first goal of the season to preserve their unbeaten Nationwide Conference record with a 1-1 draw against Hednesford at Edgar Street on Saturday.

Bulls' skipper Ian Wright was the home hero when he glanced a header past former United goalkeeper Mark Gayle with 20 minutes remaining. That cancelled out a 50th minute strike from the Pitmen's striker Neil Davis.

Hereford put the visitors on the rack from the kick-off and they could have taken the lead after just eight minutes when Michael McIndoe sped to the by-line and swept a cross into the Town penalty area.

United's player-coach Phil Robinson arrived at pace and slid in to fire a bullet of an effort goalwards from 12 yards, only to be thwarted by a fine one-handed flick over the crossbar from Gayle.

However, with the visitors on the back foot and the ascendancy firmly with United, a combination of some pernickety refereeing from Wiltshire official Steve Habgood and several injury stoppages combined to break the Hereford momentum.

Hednesford defender Mark Haran headed a corner from Mark Cooper well wide on 37 minutes in the only other incident of note in a goal-ledd first-half.

The combination of Paul Bagshaw and Davis almost caught the Bulls out with a swift counter-attack two minutes after the break, but Hereford ignored the warning and were punished almost immediately afterwards.

United lost the ball as they pushed forward with an early second-half foray and were caught short at the back when Bagshaw looped the ball over Chris Lane to the unmarked Davis.

The former Wycombe forward wasted no time in picking his spot past ex-Hednesford 'keeper Scott Cooksey and he netted the first Conference goal conceded by United in 618 minutes of football this season.

It seemed for a while that the visitors would run away with the game, but the Bulls rode the storm.

On 70 minutes Hereford finally got their reward for a battling display.

McIndoe's free-kick was glanced into the far corner of Gayle's net by United captain Wright from 15 yards for his first goal of the season.

It was enough to keep United third in the Conference, three points behind new leaders Yeovil Town.